Classic chills and creepy costumes at Dundead Halloween 2026
We take a look back at some highlights from our Halloween season
This year saw our biggest Halloween season yet, as we filled DCA Cinema with six classic scares and one surprise preview for October.
We started off on Fri 9 October by welcoming Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman back to perform their score for The Phantom of the Opera alongside the film. The month continued with uncut screenings of Dracula and The Devils and a special screening of The Return of the Living Dead with added drag, plus we revisited Audition and surprised you with a preview of new film Eire. The season culminated on Halloween night with a 50th anniversary screening of The Omen along with short film Season's Greetings, plus a costume competition.
You came out in force, making it our most successful Halloween to date and delighting us with some very creepy costumes. Let's take a look back...
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Discovering new favourites! Thank you!! I loved The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula and The Return of the Living Dead. Delightful gory drag!! Yay! Excited for Dundead 4eva!Dundead comment card
The Phantom returns
Last year we commissioned a new score for The Phantom of the Opera to celebrate it's 100th anniversary. Scottish musicians Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman did an incredible job, mixing acoustic and electronic instruments with elements of sound design to fantastic effect.
This year, the pair made their soundtrack into an album: House With A Curse. Released by Clay Pipe Music in October, we were delighted to host a special launch event to kick start their album tour and our Halloween season. Andrew and Tommy joined us to perform their score live alongside the film and took part in a Q&A after the screening. It was another sell out Phantom event and the perfect start to spooky season.
Find out more about the album and where to get a copy, here.
Dive into Audition
We were thrilled to bring Audition to the big screen. Takashi MIIke's 1999 J-horror packs quite a punch and it was great to enjoy it with a busy audience, made up of those rewatching and some who had never experienced it before.
Dundead programmer, Michael Coull, shared some interesting articles and links for anyone looking for further reading about the film.
- Feminist and Misogynist Discourse in AUDITION by Jessica McGoff
- Why Takashi Miike’s Audition is a piercing feminist film in disguise by Daisy Phillipson
- Gender Performance: Audition by Jude Doyle
- Why We Still Talk About Audition by Alison Peirse
- Sex and Threads: The Major Works of Takashi Miike by Peyton Robinson
Dracula
We enjoyed some Hammer horror with a special new 4K release of 1958's Dracula. Featuring newly-rediscovered footage, it was great to enjoy this full uncut version. And you enjoyed it too, here are some of your Letterboxd reviews and comments.
The best Dracula (Christopher Lee), the best Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) in my all time favourite horror film. Brilliantly directed by Terence Fisher, Dracula is tense, exciting, with some great moments of humour and one of the best endings in all of horror. The restored 4K version, with previously unseen footage (in the UK certainly) is visually stunning.
A stunning 4K restoration screening with a sold out audience, at Dundead at the DCA cinema in Dundee. Seeing films like this on the big screen, where they belong is incredible. Screened with an introductory short about the restoration process, with the he appropriately named John Gore
The Return of the Living Dead and the return of Climax Dundee
After our sell-out screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show last year, we had to get Climax Dundee back to perform again. Founder Eden Spaghetti selected fun-filled 80s zombie-fest The Return of the Living Dead, gave us a wonderfully creepy drag performance before the screening and brought along special guest Transhausen by Proxy, who also gave us a hilarious Saw-themed performance.
The event prompted a board full of Dundead comment cards, plus some eye-catching audience costumes.
Had a blast - 10/10 night! Love Dundead mixing classy and thoughtful with fun trash. Keep it up!Dundead comment card
Surprise!
One of our favourite Halloween traditions from the last few years has been surprising you with a preview of something brand new. Dundead programmer Michael Coull shared some hints before all was revealed at the screening.
And we can reveal that the film was indie found footage horror Erie. Directed by Alison-Eve Hammersley, it follows two siblings as they try to uncover the truth about strange happenings in the woods.
Here are some of your reviews:
Erie is a cool film that admittedly has a sort of dull and meandering first act. Despite this, the film REALLY finds its stride after it gets past that, and contains a genuinely jaw-dropping transition into its third act.
Enthralling, absolutely nail-biting and yet...kinda really funny too!
What to watch after The Devils
After being banned in Dundee upon its release in 1971, it was a privilege to bring Ken Russell's infamous film to the big screen, newly restored in 4K and uncut. Dr Brian Hoyle, Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee, shared more about the controversy surrounding the film in our Q&A and also suggested what to watch next...
- MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS (1961) - "If it was the story that interested you, this is based on the same events. It is a very different in style and tone. A far more restrained and austere film than Russell’s, but still very unsettling."
- KEN RUSSELL'S BBC FILMS (1950s - 1960s) - "Ken Russell's real contribution to cinema is his radical rethinking of the biopic genre. And the biopics he made for the BBC totally changed my view of what constituted television aesthetics. Visually and aurally, they leave most feature films for dead."
- THE MUSIC LOVERS (1971) - "Russell's film about Tchaikovsky might be the ultimate Russell film."
- CARAVAGGIO (1986) - "Derek Jarman’s biopic about the Renaissance painter has a touch of Russell about it and is another triumph of design."
See it again
Ken Russell's The Devils is back on our screens in glorious 35mm.
Happy Halloween
We celebrated Halloween itself with a 50th anniversary screening of The Omen, plus short film Season's Greetings. We challenged you to dress up (with a Dundead tote bag full of treats from DCA Shop to be won) and you didn't let us down.
Our winner was this wonderfully gruesome ensemble. And there were lots of other creepy costumes on display. We didn't manage to snap Carrie, SpongeBob SquarePants or the velvet-clad vampire, but we did capture this rather terrifying collection...
Thanks to everyone who came along to one or all of our Halloween screenings. We loved sharing our spooky selection with you. We've Dundead screenings to take us through to the end of the year, plus the dates are in the diary for 2027's festival. Head here to find out more.
